The jam after Playin' should have its own name: Interstellar Space Jam. It seems the boys were primed to give the home-town fans a little taste of full-time midi (summer tour had been mostly midi guitars during space only with few exceptions, fall tour they played midi guitars for the entire show(s)) with all the breakouts we had seen out here on the east coast; they certainly don't dissapoint. The Birdsong has the same drawn-out, spacey quality to it.
Add to this the fact that Phil is playing his Ken Smith (for the frist time?) and he must've been enjoying the way it sounded, so he's very prominent in the mix and he's layin' 'em down nicely.

Not going to comments more about this show except that I agree with most of the comments below that this show is really really really good.
Now on the Dew I was there and Jerry's guitar or whatever did cut out in half of the speakers. The funny thing was that I remember moving a couple feet from where I was dancing and the sound blasted in just fine so the end of that Dew hopefully had to be captured by an audience taper. A good splice or matrix I think could be done for this I'm hoping.

DEW!!!
This DEW is divine. It is flawless, I don't care what the complainers say.

A Perfect 10.

The show is great and the sound is terrific but I'm gonna give this show a top rating for the outstanding Morning Dew. Sadly, this mix cacks out at a peak moment (see my caveat below) during it but you can find other sources that captured the whole thing. Anyone who loves this period and hasn't heard it is in for a treat. You never know what's coming until it grabs you by the scruff of the neck and throws you up against the wall, which this Dew does handily. I was doing laundry in a basement in Vancouver listening on a beatbox the first time I heard it and I almost fell over. And it was FILLER!!!!!! on the New's Year's Eve show tapes I had received. This show and the 30th shred New Year's Eve. That's why if you were gonna do a New Year's run then you had to do 'em all.
CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!
I had not realized how Garcia's solo dekes out of the mix after he sings "Can't walk you out in the morning dew today"!!!! What the fu...This must explain why he takes two passes at it. My superb audience version has every note! So the crowd could hear it, but not Healy, apparently. Thank god the tapers caught this magnificent performance. I'll check the other ones posted here and am forced to reduce my rating.

One crazy evening. Phil's blasting and really going for it. Healy takes much of the first set to settle on the mix, and loses Jerry a few times during the evening at peak moments. Nonetheless, This is a band firing on all cylenders. Cold Rain>Greatest is epic. Good Times Blues (not LTGTR) is a bluesy tour-de-force. Althea peaks hard in the finale. Big River has got the band really going for it. Tom Thumb's has Phil twisting up the words. Bird Song is way out there, and Promised Land, if someone could remix the details a bit, is a contender for best ever status.
Set 2 is even more crazy, Iko goes fractal. Playin' catches three waves and flushes right into a roller coaster of outer space themes. Crazy Fingers is sparkling, and Uncle John's rocks the end of pre-drums with a roaring psychedelia. Drumz and space are the usual journey. Wheel>Miracle rocks and sets up for one of the great Dew's this band should have ever done. Jerry loses his volume at the peak, so Brent takes over and slams it to the wall. The encore is significant double take; not the best version of either song, but special for the day.
This is Clarence Clemon's final show with the Dead, as far as I know. 3 months later, Branford would join the band.

We need 12-28-89 uploaded to complete this New Years's run. A fine show, someone please upload a copy, we need to relive the memories, thanks!

Jerry was certainly in great spirits this night ..

The 2nd set has some simply outstanding JAMS. The Aiko with Clarence Clemons (unannouced surprise guest) is very hot, and then they go into a serious playing, way way out there. The Crazy>Uncles are hot, but the major highlight is the ripping Dew. The middle Jam brent just pushes them harder and harder, when you think it has peaked it peaks again. Nice Double encore. New years was a great show, and this was the bookend on the other side

What I remember the most about this show is Jerry literally dancing in front of his mike, playing like a showman--like Buddy Guy at times, swaying and rocking. The man was in love!

Phil is so hot in Cold rain. Drops some good bombs. Was my second NY run. Fun stuff happened at the Days Inn on Heggenburger! :)

First set is standard, but well played as far as a first night of a run is concerned. Clarence Clemmons join the band for a spirited Iko. However, it is the Playing in the Band that is particularly weird on this night. Weird energy that continued on 12/31/89 with an out-there Dark Star that, in my opinion, is underrated.